GREENWICH, Conn. -- U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) ended a week of appearances in Fairfield County with a lively town hall meeting at Central Middle School in Greenwich on Saturday afternoon.

Himes addressed more than a dozen questions asked by constituents from Greenwich, New Canaan and Stamford.

Himes, serving his fourth term in Congress, focused largely on health care concerns and Social Security. He also touched on gun control, including Connecticut's historic legislation passed on Wednesday, immigration reform, economic issues and taxes.

"This is important for me to do because I was elected to represent you," Himes told the crowd. "And the way for me to effectively do that is to come and hear from you folks."

He added that he feels Congress deserves the 9 percent approval rating it received from the public last year, but he thinks there will be more bipartisanship in 2013.

"There was a lot of polarized arguing in Washington last year and politics came to the forefront, especially since it was an election year," Himes said. "The good news is, some of that ice has broken."

Himes pointed to the passage of the Sandy Relief Bill and the Violence Against Women Act as evidence of the start of bipartisanship.

Comments (10)

Okay, Jim, here's a link to CBS news about the cancer patients. I originally read it in the Washington Post (not the Washington Times), which is consider a liberal paper. I think the Washington Post was the paper that broke the story, if that is still how they refer to these news stories being released in this digital age.

Hey Himes, how's the economy working out for you and your fans? Only 88K new jobs were created last month – far below the consensus estimate of 200K – and the smallest gain in 10 months. We're going in the wrong direction, Himes. And Obamacare you voted for? It looks like a big mess from the jump. But it's OK right? Because everybody will be getting affordable healthcare. Everybody. How about an affordable home for EVERYBODY, huh? How about a good job for EVERYBODY, say, minimum wage $20 per hour?

The bill passed 26-10 in the Senate and 105-44 in the House. Both were bipartisan votes.

It was clearly a feel good moment. Has anyone realized that the new gun control laws would not have prevented Newtown? It would be also interesting to know if our good legislative representatives realized that Colt will in all likelihood be leaving the State for better pastures?